At Schools Not So Far Away

Last night, I went with some members of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship to Bucknell University for a talk and a Q&A with David Lamb, author of God Behaving Badly: Is the God of the Old Testament Angry, Sexist and Racist? and Old Testament scholar. He addressed some of the problematic texts in the Old Testament and our popular conceptions of God, as portrayed in the Old Testament. Then the room was opened up to questions. This was particularly interesting since people came into the talk with vastly different opinions about the Bible.

According to Mapquest, Bucknell is about 13 miles away. Its proximity is what allowed for such a short-notice trip. Our InterVarsity chapter didn't plan on going until the night before.

A few weeks ago, for my Introduction to Poetry course, we met at Bucknell to attend a poetry reading by Mark Doty. The class broke up into different cars, got oursevles there, attended the reading, and got back to Susquehanna all within, approximately, the normal timespan for our class.

These two times, I've only seen Bucknell in the dark, but I'll be able to see it in the light later this month. Bucknell will be hosting InterVarsity's Dig-In, a weekend-long conference that brigns together students from different colleges in the area to study Scripture. Last year Susquehanna hosted, which was super convenient for us. This is also convenient for Susquehanna students because, at the end of the day, we'll be able to return to our dorms rather than stay overnight with Bucknell host students, which is what students who come from farther distances will be doing.

Penn State is much farther away than Bucknell but it is still a reasonable distance for special trips. This semester, I went with a gorup of friends to a concert at Penn State's Bryce Jordan center called Witner Jam.

Visiting these colleges inspires some reflection on Susquehanna. Penn State, for instance, feels like an entirely different world. It's enormous and bustling and overwhelming, and I can't really imagine going there. Bucknell also seemed to have a different atmosphere than SU.

I know that other students and student groups sometimes visit these schools for concerts, readings, etc. It's not something I usually take advantage of since I don't have a car; in fact, these are the only three instances wehre I've been to other schools while at Susquehanna. Still, though there's plenty to do at Susquehanna, it's nice that there's the option to drop in on other colleges when there's special events that interest you. The best part is that after said events, at least if at Bucknell or Penn State, it's not too long before you're back to being cozy in your room at Susquehanna.